DNA encoding non-human animal interferons, vectors and hosts therefor, and recombinant production of IFN polypeptides

ABSTRACT

Distinct α-, β- and γ-interferon genes from various animal species have been identified, cloned and expressed to produce the corresponding non-human animal interferon proteins. Specifically disclosed are interferons of bovine, porcine, feline and rabbit origin.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This is a divisional of application Ser. No. 07/949,327, filed Sep. 21, 1992; which is a continuation of application Ser. No. 07/749,371, filed Aug. 23, 1991, now abandoned; which is a continuation of application Ser. No. 07/104,461, filed Oct. 2, 1987, now abandoned; which is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 06/438,128, filed Nov. 1, 1982, now abandoned; which is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 06/355,298, filed Mar. 8, 1982, now abandoned.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to the field of recombinant DNA technology, to means and methods utilizing such technology in the discovery of a broad class of non-human animal interferons and to the production thereof and to the various products of such production and their uses.

More particularly, the present invention relates to the isolation and identification of DNA sequences encoding non-human animal interferons and to the construction of recombinant DNA expression vehicles containing such DNA sequences operably linked to expression-effecting promoter sequences and to the expression vehicles so constructed. In another aspect, the present invention relates to host culture systems, such as various microorganism and vertebrate cell cultures transformed with such expression vehicles and thus directed in the expression of the DNA sequences referred to above. In yet other aspects, this invention relates to the means and methods of converting the novel end products of such expression to entities, such as pharmaceutical compositions, useful for the prophylactic or therapeutic treatment of non-human animals. In addition, this invention relates to various processes useful for producing said DNA sequences, expression vehicles, host culture systems and end products and entities thereof and to specific and associated embodiments thereof.

The present invention arises in part from the discovery of the DNA sequence and deduced amino acid sequence encoding a series of bovine alpha interferons, including the 3'- and 5'-flanking sequences thereof facilitating their in vitro linkage into expression vehicles. These, in turn, enable the development of the means and methods for producing, via recombinant DNA technology, sufficient amounts of non-human animal interferons, so as to enable, in turn, the determination of their biochemical properties and bioactivity, making possible their efficient production for commercial/biological exploitation.

The publications and other materials hereof used to illuminate the background of the invention, and in particular cases, to provide additional details respecting its practice are hereby incorporated herein by this reference, and for convenience, are numerically referenced by the following text and respectively grouped in the appended bibliography.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A. Non-human animal interferons

Interferon components have been isolated from tissues of various phylogenetic species lower than human (1,2,3). Activity studies conducted with these interferons have demonstrated varying degrees of antiviral effects in the requisite host animal (3,4,5,6). It also has been demonstrated that these interferons are not always species specific. For example, preparations of bovine interferons isolated from tissues, had antiviral activity on monkey and human cells (7). Likewise, human interferons have been found active in various cells of phylogenetically lower species (see 7).

This species interactivity is doubtless due to a high degree of homologous conservation, both in amino acid composition and sequence, amongst the interferons. However, until now, this explanation remained theoretical because the amounts and purities of non-human animal interferons that have been obtainable were insufficient to carry out unambiguous experiments on the characterization and biological properties of the purified components versus several of their human counterparts (8,9,10,11,12).

In any event, despite these low amounts and purities, a causal connection between interferon and anti-viral activity in the requisite animal host has been established. Thus, the production of non-human animal interferons in high yields and purities would be very desirable in order to initiate and successfully conduct animal bioassay experiments leading toward commercial exploitation in the treatment of animals for viral infections and malignant and immunosuppressed or immunodeficient conditions. In addition, the production of isolated non-human animal interferon species would enable their characterization, both physical and bioactive, and thus provide a basis for categorization and consequential comparative studies with counterpart human interferon species (see 8 to 20).

The studies done with non-human animal interferons, until the present invention, being restricted to the use of rather crude preparations, due to their very low availability, nevertheless suggest very important biological functions. Not only have the class of non-human animal interferons a potent associated therapeutic antiviral activity, but also potential as a prophylactic adjunct with vaccine and/or antibiotic treatment, clearly pointing to very promising clinical and commercial candidates.

It was perceived that the application of recombinant DNA technology would be a most effective way of providing the requisite larger quantities of non-human animal interferons necessary to achieve clinical and commercial exploitation. Whether or not the materials so produced would include glycosylation which is considered characteristic of native derived material, they would probably exhibit bioactivity admitting of their use clinically in the treatment of a wide range of viral, neoplastic, and immunosuppressed conditions or diseases in non-human animals.

B. Recombinant DNA Technology

Recombinant DNA technology has reached the age of some sophistication. Molecular biologists are able to recombine various DNA sequences with some facility, creating new DNA entities capable of producing copious amounts of exogenous protein product in transformed microbes. The general means and methods are in hand for the in vitro ligation of various blunt ended or "sticky" ended fragments of DNA, producing potent expression vehicles useful in transforming particular organisms, thus directing their efficient synthesis of desired exogenous product. However, on an individual product basis, the pathway remains somewhat tortuous and the science has not advanced to a stage where regular predictions of success can be made. Indeed, those who portend successful results without the underlying experimental basis, do so with considerable risk of inoperability.

The plasmid, an extrachromosomal loop of double-stranded DNA found in bacteria and other microbes, oftentimes in multiple copies per cell, remains a basic element of recombinant DNA technology. Included in the information encoded in the plasmid DNA is that required to reproduce the plasmid in daughter cells (i.e., an origin of replication) and ordinarily, one or more phenotypic selection characteristics such as, in the case of bacteria, resistance to antibiotics, which permit clones of the host cell containing the plasmid of interest to be recognized and preferentially grown in selective media. The utility of plasmids lies in the fact that they can be specifically cleaved by one or another restriction endonuclease or "restriction enzyme", each of which recognizes a different site on the plasmid DNA. Thereafter heterologous genes or gene fragments may be inserted into the plasmid by endwise joining at the cleavage site or at reconstructed ends adjacent to the cleavage site. Thus formed are so-called replicable expression vehicles. DNA recombination is performed outside the cell, but the resulting "recombinant" replicable expression vehicle, or plasmid, can be introduced into cells by a process known as transformation and large quantities of the recombinant vehicle obtained by growing the transformant. Moreover, where the gene is properly inserted with reference to portions of the plasmid which govern the transcription and translation of the encoded DNA message, the resulting expression vehicle can be used to actually produce the polypeptide sequence for which the inserted gene codes, a process referred to as expression.

Expression is initiated in a region known as the promoter which is recognized by and bound by RNA polymerase. In the transcription phase of expression, the DNA unwinds, exposing it as a template for initiated synthesis of messenger RNA from the DNA sequence. The messenger RNA is, in turn, translated into a polypeptide having the amino acid sequence encoded by the mRNA. Each amino acid is encoded by a nucleotide triplet or "codon" which collectively make up the "structural gene", i.e. that part which encodes the amino acid sequence of the expressed polypeptide product. Translation is initiated at a "start" signal (ordinarily ATG, which in the resulting messenger RNA becomes AUG). So-called stop codons define the end of translation and, hence, of production of further amino acid units. The resulting product may be obtained by lysing, if necessary, the host cell, in microbial systems, and recovering the product by appropriate purification from other proteins.

In practice, the use of recombinant DNA technology can express entirely heterologous polypeptides--so-called direct expression--or alternatively may express a heterologous polypeptide fused to a portion of the amino acid sequence of a homologous polypeptide. In the latter cases, the intended bioactive product is sometimes rendered bioinactive within the fused, homologous/heterologous polypeptide until it is cleaved in an extracellular environment (21, 22).

C. Cell Culture Technology

The art of cell or tissue cultures for studying genetics and cell physiology is well established. Means and methods are in hand for maintaining permanent cell lines, prepared by successive serial transfers from isolate normal cells. For use in research, such cell lines are maintained on a solid support in liquid medium, or by growth in suspension containing support nutriments. Scale-up for large preparations seems to pose only mechanical problems (See generally 23,24).

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is based upon the discovery that recombinant DNA technology can be used to successfully produce non-human animal interferons, and each of them, preferably in direct form, and in amounts sufficient to initiate and conduct biological testing as prerequisites to market approval. The product is suitable for use, in all of its forms, in the prophylactic or therapeutic treatment of non-human animals, notably for viral infections and malignant and immunosuppressed or immunodeficient conditions. Its forms include various possible oligomeric forms which may include associated glycosylation as well as allelic or other, induced (such as via site directed mutagenesis of the underlying DNA) variations of individual members or family units. The products are produced by genetically engineered microorganisms or cell culture systems. Thus, the potential now exists to prepare and isolate non-human animal interferons in a more efficient manner than has been possible. One significant factor of the present invention, in its most preferred embodiment, is the accomplishment of genetically directing a microorganism or cell culture to produce a representative non-human animal interferon, bovine interferon, in isolatable amounts, produced by the host cell in mature form.

The present invention comprises the non-human animal interferons thus produced and the means and methods of their production. The present invention is further directed to replicable DNA expression vehicles harboring gene sequences encoding non-human animal interferons in expressible form. Further, the present invention is directed to microorganism strains or cell cultures transformed with the expression vehicles described above and to fermentation media comprising such transformed strains or cultures, capable of producing non-human animal interferons.

In still further aspects, the present invention is directed to various processes useful for preparing said interferon gene sequences, DNA expression vehicles, microorganism strains and cell cultures and to specific embodiments thereof. Still further, this invention is directed to the preparation of the fermentation media of said microorganisms and cell cultures. Further, in certain host systems, vectors can be devised to produce the desired non-human animal interferon, secreted from the host cell in mature form. The interferon containing the signal sequence derived from the 5'-flanking region of the gene proper is believed to be transported to the cellular wall of the host organisms where, aiding in such transport, the signal portion is cleaved during the secretion process of the mature interferon product. This embodiment enables the isolation and purification of the intended mature interferon without resort to involved procedures designed to eliminate contaminants of intracellular host protein or cellular debris.

In addition, this invention is specifically directed to the preparation of a bovine interferon representative of the class of non-human animal interferons embraced herein, produced by direct expression in mature form.

Reference herein to the expression "mature non-human animal interferon" connotes the microbial or cell culture production of non-human animal interferon unaccompanied by the signal peptide or presequence peptide that immediately attends translation of the non-human animal interferon mRNA. Mature non-human animal interferon, according to the present invention, is thus provided, having methionine as its first amino acid (present by virtue of the ATG start signal codon insertion in front of the structural gene) or, where the methionine is intra- or extracellularly cleaved, having its normally first amino acid. Mature non-human animal interferon can also be produced, in accordance herewith, together with a conjugated protein other than the conventional signal polypeptide, the conjugate being specifically cleavable in an intra- or extracellular environment (see 21). Finally, the mature non-human animal interferon can be produced by direct expression without the necessity of cleaving away any extraneous, superfluous polypeptide. This is particularly important where a given host may not, or not efficiently, remove a signal peptide where the expression vehicle is designed to express the mature interferon together with its signal peptide. The thus produced mature interferon is recovered and purified to a level fitting it for use in the treatment of viral, malignant, and immunosuppressed or immunodeficient conditions.

Non-human animal interferons hereof are those otherwise endogenous to the animal organism including, in nomenclature analogous to human interferons, animal alpha (leukocyte), beta (fibroblast) and gamma (immune) interferons. All three series have been identified in an animal model. Further, based upon the bovine example, the non-human animal alpha series is composed of a family of proteins as in the human case; those investigated have a lower degree of homology to the corresponding human alpha interferons than either those non-human animal interferons have amongst themselves or the human alpha interferons have amongst themselves. In addition, the bovine beta series is composed of a family of proteins, distinct from the human case. In addition, this invention provides interspecies and intrafamily hybrid interferons, by taking advantage of common restriction sites within the genes of the various non-human animal interferons hereof and recombining corresponding portions, according to known methods (see 57).

In any event, the non-human animal interferons embraced by this invention include those normally endogenous to animals of the avian, bovine, canine, equine, feline, hircine, ovine, piscine, and porcine families. In particular, the present invention provides interferons of cloven-hoofed animals such as cattle, sheep and goats. The interferons provided by this invention find application as antiviral and antitumor agents in the respective host animal. For example, bovine interferons would find practical applications in treating respiratory complex in cattle, either in conjunction with (per se known) antibiotics as a therapeutic component or with vaccines as a prophylactic component. Class utility, demonstrated as described above, would extend to other bovine, and to goats, sheep, pigs, horses, dogs, cats, birds and fish. In horses, dogs, cats and birds, the antitumor effect of the corresponding interferons could be expected to be especially important commercially.

Thus, for applications to particular host non-human animals, advantage can be taken in accordance herewith of demonstrated or otherwise manifest interspecies activity such that, for a given example, a given porcine interferon could find useful application in treating a bovine host. This may be particularly useful where, given a particular recombinant system or host according to the general ennoblement hereof, a particular interferon may be particularly susceptible to commercial exploitation whilst retaining essential bioactivity against a range of conditions not necessarily specific to the same family as that to which the given interferon belongs phylogenetically. In all events, such interspecies utility as can be determined according to analogous testing protocols is within the ambit of the present invention. See, for example, Ohman et al., Antiviral Research 7, 187 (1987) and the references cited therein, which are hereby incorporated by reference.

The following rationale, described with reference to bovine interferon as a representative of the class, may be employed for obtaining various non-human animal interferons hereof, in accordance with this invention:

1. Bovine tissues, for example bovine pancreas tissue, were reduced to frozen powder and treated to digest RNA and protein materials and provide, on precipitation, high molecular weight bovine DNA.

2. The high molecular weight DNA was partially digested for random cutting with respect to gene locus.

3. The resultant DNA fragments were size-fractionated giving from 15 to 20 kilo base pair fragments.

4. The resultant fragments of Step 3 were cloned using a λ Charon 30 phage vector.

5. The thus prepared vectors were packaged in vitro to infectious phage particles containing rDNA to provide a phage library. This was amplified by propagation on bacterial cells to about 106 fold. The phage were plated to virtual confluence on a lawn of bacteria and screened for hybridization with a radioactive human interferon probe.

6. From the appropriate clones the corresponding DNA was isolated and restriction mapped and analyzed by Southern hybridization. Restriction fragments containing bovine interferon genes were subcloned into plasmid vehicles and then sequenced.

7. The sequenced DNA was then tailored in vitro for insertion into an appropriate expression vehicle which was used to transform an appropriate host cell which was, in turn, permitted to grow in a culture and to express the desired bovine interferon product.

8. Bovine interferon thus produced has 166 amino acids in its mature form, beginning with cysteine, and 23 in the presequence, and is very hydrophobic in character. Its monomeric molecular weight has been calculated at about 21,409. It displays characteristics similar to human leukocyte interferons (8,9,10,11) and has been found to be about 60 percent homologous to a human leukocyte interferon.

Having isolated and identified the DNA encoding a particular non-human animal interferon in accordance herewith, it falls within the skill of the art as generally described and referenced herein to utilize that DNA as a sequence, or subsequence, useful to probe for other non-human interferons, of the same or different families, by application using the appropriate genomic library or other appropriate DNA source. Alternatively, synthetic probes of various lengths can be prepared based upon the sequence identified, or a genetically degenerate encoding form thereof, or the entire DNA sequence, could be synthesized according to contemporary skill in the art.

Having thus provided such DNA sequences, it similarly falls within the skill in the art, as generally described and referenced herein, to configure it in a number of equivalent expression systems for use with appropriate recombinant hosts.

Specific embodiments for such manipulations as described herein lay foundation, along with the extant art, for producing non-human animal interferons via a variety of enabled recombinant expression systems and hosts--vide supra. Likewise, it belongs to those skilled in the art of animal husbandry to test the thus produced interferons for bioactivity in members of the phylogenetically identical or equivalent families of non-human animals, the results of such bioactivity testing in turn confirming any interspecies and/or interfamilial utility.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A. Microorganisms/Cell Cultures

1. Bacterials Strains/Promoters

The work described herein was performed employing, inter alia the microorganism E. coli K-12 strain 294 (end A, thi⁻, hsr⁻, _(k) hsm⁺) (25). This strain has been deposited with the American Type Culture Collection, ATCC Accession No. 31446. However, various other microbial strains are useful, including known E. coli strains such as E. coli B, E. coli X 1776 (ATCC No. 31537) and E. coli W 3110 (F⁻, λ⁻, protrophic) (ATCC No. 27325), E. coli DP 50 SuPF (ATCC No. 39061, deposited Mar. 5, 1982), E. coli JM83 (ATCC No. 39062, deposited Mar. 5, 1982) or other microbial strains many of which are deposited and (potentially) available from recognized microorganism depository institutions, such as the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC)--cf. the ATCC catalogue listing (See also 26, 26a). These other microorganisms include, for example, Bacilli such as Bacillus subtilis and other enterobacteriaceae among which can be mentioned as examples Salmonella typhimurium and Serratia marcesans, utilizing plasmids that can replicate and express heterologous gene sequences therein.

As examples, the beta lactamase and lactose promoter systems have been advantageously used to initiate and sustain microbial production of heterologous polypeptides. Details relating to the make-up and construction of these promoter systems can be obtained by reference to (27) and (28). More recently, a system based upon the tryptophan operon, the so-called trp promoter system, has been developed. Details relating to the make-up and construction of this system have been published by Goeddel et al. (12) and Kleid et al. (29). Numerous other microbial promoters have been discovered and utilized and details concerning their nucleotide sequences, enabling a skilled worker to ligate them functionally within plasmid vectors, have been published--see (30).

2. Yeast Strains/Yeast Promoters

The expression system hereof may also employ the plasmid YRp7 (31, 32, 33), which is capable of selection and replication in both E. coli and the yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. For selection in yeast the plasmid contains the TRP1 gene (31, 32, 33) which complements (allows for growth in the absence of tryptophan) yeast containing mutations in this gene found on chromosome IV of yeast (34). One useful strain is strain RH218 (35) deposited at the American Type Culture Collection without restriction (ATCC No. 44076). However, it will be understood that any Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain containing a mutation which makes the cell trp1 should be an effective environment for expression of the plasmid containing the expression system. An example of another strain which could be used is pep4-1 (36). This tryptophan auxotroph strain also has a point mutation in TRP1 gene.

When placed on the 5' side of a non-yeast gene the 5'-flanking DNA sequence (promoter) from a yeast gene (for alcohol dehydrogenase 1) can promote the expression of a foreign gene in yeast when placed in a plasmid used to transform yeast. Besides a promoter, proper expression of a non-yeast gene in yeast requires a second yeast sequence placed at the 3'-end of the non-yeast gene on the plasmid so as to allow for proper transcription termination and polyadenylation in yeast. This promoter can be suitably employed in the present invention as well as others--see infra. In the preferred embodiments, the 5'-flanking sequence of the yeast 3-phosphoglycerate kinase gene (37) is placed upstream from the structural gene followed again by DNA containing termination--polyadenylation signals, for example, the TRP1 (31, 32, 33) gene or the PGK (37) gene.

Because yeast 5'-flanking sequence (in conjunction with 3' yeast termination DNA) (infra) can function to promote expression of foreign genes in yeast, it seems likely that the 5'-flanking sequences of any highly-expressed yeast gene could be used for the expression of important gene products. Since under some circumstances yeast expressed up to 65 percent of its soluble protein as glycolytic enzymes (38) and since this high level appears to result from the production of high levels of the individual mRNAs (39), it should be possible to use the 5'-flanking sequences of any other glycolytic genes for such expression purposes--e.g., enolase, glyceraldehyde--3-phosphate dehydrogenase, hexokinase, pyruvate decarboxylase, phosphofructokinase, glucose--6-phosphate isomerase, 3-phosphoglycerate mutase, pyruvate kinase, triosephosphate isomerase, phosphoglucose isomerase, and glucokinase. Any of the 3'-flanking sequences of these genes could also be used for proper termination and mRNA polyadenylation in such an expression system--cf. Supra. Some other highly expressed genes are those for the acid phosphatases (40) and those that express high levels of production due to mutations in the 5'-flanking regions (mutants that increase expression)--usually due to the presence of a TYl transposable element (41).

All of the genes mentioned above are thought to be transcribed by yeast RNA polymerase II (41). It is possible that the promoters for RNA polymerase I and III which transcribe genes for ribosomal RNA, 5S RNA, and tRNAs (41, 42), may also be useful in such expression constructions.

Finally, many yeast promoters also contain transcriptional control so they may be turned off or on by variation in growth conditions. Some examples of such yeast promoters are the genes that produce the following proteins: Alcohol dehydrogenase II, isocytochrome-c, acid phosphatase, degradative enzymes associated with nitrogen metabolism, glyceraldehyde--3-phosphate dehydrogenase, and enzymes responsible for maltose and galactose utilization (39). Such a control region would be very useful in controlling expression of protein product--especially when their production is toxic to yeast. It should also be possible to put the control region of one 5'-flanking sequence with a 5'-flanking sequence containing a promoter from a highly expressed gene. This would result in a hybrid promoter and should be possible since the control region and the promoter appear to be physically distinct DNA sequences.

3. Cell Culture Systems/Cell Culture Vectors

Propagation of vertebrate cells in culture (tissue culture) has become a routine procedure in recent years (see 43). The COS-7 line of monkey kidney fibroblasts may be employed as the host for the production of non-human animal interferons (44). However, the experiments detailed here could be performed in any cell line which is capable of the replication and expression of a compatible vector, e.g., WI38, BHK, 3T3, CHO, VERO, and HeLa cell lines. Additionally, what is required of the expression vector is an origin of replication and a promoter located in front of the gene to be expressed, along with any necessary ribosome binding sites, RNA splice sites, polyadenylation site, and transcriptional terminator sequences. While these essential elements of SV40 have been exploited herein, it will be understood that the invention, although described herein in terms of a preferred embodiment, should not be construed as limited to these sequences. For example, the origin of replication of other viral (e.g., Polyoma, Adeno, VSV, BPV, and so forth) vectors could be used, as well as cellular origins of DNA replication which could function in a nonintegrated state.

B. Vector Systems

1. Direct Expression of Mature Bovine Interferon in E. coli

The procedure used to obtain direct expression of bovine interferon in E. coli as a mature interferon polypeptide (minus signal sequence) involved the combination of a plasmid containing a promoter fragment and translational start signal with a tailored fragment of animal genomic DNA that contained the coding region for the mature interferon.

2. Expression in Yeast

To express a heterologous gene such as the DNA for non-human animal interferon in yeast, it is necessary to construct a plasmid vector containing four components. The first component is the part which allows for transformation of both E. coli and yeast and thus must contain a selectable gene from each organism, such as the gene for ampicillin resistance from E. coli and the gene TRP1 from yeast. This component also requires an origin of replication from both organisms to be maintained as a plasmid DNA in both organisms, such as the E. coli origin from pBR322 and the ars1 origin from chromosome III of yeast.

The second component of the plasmid is a 5'-flanking sequence from a highly expressed yeast gene to promote transcription of a downstream-placed structural gene, such as the 5'-flanking sequence used is that from the yeast 3-phosphoglycerate kinase (PGK) gene.

The third component of the system is a structural gene constructed in such a manner that it contains both an ATG translational start and translational stop signals. The isolation and construction of such a gene is described infra.

The fourth component is a yeast DNA sequence containing the 3'-flanking sequence of a yeast gene, which contains the proper signals for transcription termination and polyadenylation.

3. Expression in Mammalian Cell Culture

The strategy for the synthesis of immune interferon in mammalian cell culture relies on the development of a vector capable of both autonomous replication and expression of a foreign gene under the control of a heterologous transcriptional unit. The replication of this vector in tissue culture can be accomplished by providing a DNA replication origin (derived from SV40 virus), and providing helper function (T antigen) by the introduction of the vector into a cell line endogenously expressing this antigen (46, 47). The late promoter of SV40 virus preceded the structural gene of interferon and ensured the transcription of the gene.

A useful vector to obtain expression consists of pBR322 sequences which provides a selectable marker for selection in E. coli (ampicillin resistance) as well as an E. coli origin of DNA replication. These sequences are derived from the plasmid pML-I (46) and encompasses the region spanning the EcoRI and BamHI restriction sites. The SV40 origin is derived from a 342 base pair PvuII-HindIII fragment encompassing this region (48, 49) (both ends being converted to EcoRI ends). These sequences, in addition to comprising the viral origin of DNA replication, encode the promoter for both the early and late transcriptional unit. The orientation of the SV40 origin region is such that the promoter for the late transcriptional unit is positioned proximal to the gene encoding interferon.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 depicts a Southern hybridization of (a) human, (b) bovine and (c) porcine genomic DNAs digested with EcoRI and hybridized at different formamide concentrations with a ³² p-labelled 570 base-pair EcoRI fragment containing the coding region of the human leukocyte interferon A/D hybrid. The hybridization at 20 percent formamide gives the clearest pattern of the multigene bovine and porcine leukocyte interferon gene families.

FIG. 2 depicts a Southern hybridization of four different bovine genomic DNA phage recombinants digested with EcoRI, BamHI or HindIII and hybridized with a 32P-labelled human leukocyte gene probe. Clone 83 yields two hybridizing fragments with each restriction enzyme.

FIGS. 3A-1 and 3A-2 shows a portion of the nucleotide sequence from the plasmid subclone p83BamHI1.9kb as well as the deduced amino acid sequence for the bovine leukocyte interferon coded therein. The signal peptide is represented by amino acid residues S1 through S23.

FIGS. 3B-1 and 3B-2 shows the nucleotide sequence and deduced amino acid sequence for a second bovine leukocyte interferon (α2) from the plasmid subclone p67EcoRI 3.2 kb.

FIGS. 3C-1 and 3C-2 shows the complete mature nucleotide sequence and deduced amino acid-sequence for a third bovine leukocyte interferon (α3) from the plasmid subclone p35EcoRI-BamHI 3.5 kb.

FIGS. 3D-1 and 3D-2 shows the nucleotide sequence and deduced amino acid sequence for a fourth bovine leukocyte interferon hereof from the plasmid subclone p83EcoRI-BamHI 2.9 kb. The signal is represented by amino acid residues SI to S23. The mature protein comprises 172 amino acid residues. It is noted that the last stretch of six amino acid residues is attributed to a nucleotide base change at position 511 which allows six additional translatable codons before the next in phase stop signal.

FIGS. 4A, 4B and 4C compare the amino acid sequences of BoIFN-α1, α2, α3 and α4 with the sequences for 11 known human leukocyte interferons. Also given are the amino acids conserved among all human leukocyte interferons, all bovine leukocyte interferons, and with respect to bovine α1 and α4, positions where homology with the majority of human leukocyte interferons occur.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of the construction of the bovine leukocyte interferon expression plasmid pBoIFN-α1trp55. The starting materials are the trp expression vector pdeltaRIsrc and the BamHI fragment from the plasmid subclone p83BamHI1.9kb.

FIG. 6 depicts a Southern hybridization of bovine DNA digested with either EcoRI, HindIII, BamHI, BglII and PvuII with a radioactive probe prepared from BoIFN-αI or BoIFN-α4 gene fragments. Each IFN gene preferentially hybridizes with a distinct subfamily of BoIFN-α genes.

FIG. 7 shows a restriction map of the genomic bovine DNA inserts from three phage recombinants which hybridize the human fibroblast human interferon gene probe. The location and orientation of each BoIFN-β is indicated by the black rectangle. Restriction sites marked by an asterisk represent partial restriction mapping information.

FIG. 8 shows a finer resolution restriction map for the three genes referenced in FIG. 7. Hatching represents the signal sequence; shading, the mature sequence.

FIGS. 9A-1 and A2, 9B-1 and B-2, and 9C-1 and C-2 depict the nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequences for the BoIFN-β1, 2 and 3 genes.

FIG. 10 compares the amino acid sequences for the three BoIFN-βs with HuIFN-β.

FIG. 11 is a Southern blot of FIG. 6 rehybridized with a BoIFN-β1 gene probe under conditions in which only a single hybridizing fragment would, in general, become apparent when performing an analogous experiment with human genomic DNA and the HuIFN-β gene (9).

FIG. 12 schematically depicts the strategy used to express all three BoIFN-βs under control of the trp operon of E. coli.

FIG. 13 gives the comparison of the deduced amino acid sequences of BoIFN-γ, HuIFN-γ and murine IFN-γ.

FIGS. 14A-14E depict the complete nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequence of the porcine IFN-α1, porcine IFN-β1, porcine-γ, feline IFN-β1 and rabbit IFN-γ genes.

FIG. 15 shows the homologies from amongst the human, bovine, porcine, rabbit, mouse and rat IFN-γ interferons. Letters are in accordance with the standard assignments for amino acids as follows:

    ______________________________________                                         Asp   D      Aspartic acid                                                                               Ile   I    Isoleucine                                Thr   T      Threonine    Leu   L    Leucine                                   Ser   S      Serine       Tyr   Y    Tyrosine                                  Glu   E      Glutamic acid                                                                               Phe   F    Phenylalanine                             Pro   P      Proline      His   H    Histidine                                 Gly   G      Glycine      Lys   K    Lysine                                    Ala   A      Alanine      Arg   R    Arginine                                  Cys   C      Cysteine     Trp   W    Tryptophan                                Val   V      Valine       Gln   Q    Glutamine                                 Met   M      Methionine   Asn   N    Asparagine                                ______________________________________                                    

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following detailed description is illustrative of the invention for the preparation, via recombinant DNA technology, of the various non-human animal interferons embraced, and sets forth generally applicable methodology for the preparation of particular, bovine leukocyte interferons. The method is described with respect to a bacterial system.

A. Isolation of Bovine DNA

For the purpose of constructing an animal gene library, high molecular weight DNA was isolated from animal tissue by a modification of the Blin and Stafford procedure (50), randomly fragmented with respect to gene locus, and size fractionated to obtain 15-20 kilobase fragments for cloning into a lambda phage vector (51).

Frozen tissue, for example bovine pancreas, was ground to a fine powder in liquid nitrogen and solubilized in 0.25M EDTA, 1 percent Sarkosyl, 0.1 mg/ml Proteinase K (25 ml/gram tissue) at 50° C. for 3 hours. The viscous solution obtained was deproteinized by three phenol and one chloroform extractions, dialysed against 50 mM Tris-HCl (pH8), 10 mM EDTA, 10 mM NaCl and digested with heat-treated pancreatic ribonuclease (0.1 mg/ml) for 2 hours at 37° C. After phenol and ether extraction, the DNA was precipitated with two volumes of ethanol, washed in 95 percent ethanol, lyophilized and redissolved in TE buffer (10 mM Tris-HCl (pH 7.5), 1 mM EDTA) overnight at 4° C. at a final concentration of 1-2 mg/ml. The final DNA preparation was greater than 100 kilobases in length as determined by electrophoresis on a 0.5 percent neutral agarose gel.

B. Partial Endonuclease Digestion and Size Fractionation of Bovine DNA

Aliquots (0.1 mg) of bovine DNA were digested with 1.25, 2.5, 5 and 10 units of Sau3A at 37° C. for 60 minutes in a reaction (1 ml) containing 10 mM Tris-HCl (pH 7.5), 10 mM MgC12, 2 mM dithiothreitol. Incubations were stopped by adding EDTA to 25 mM, phenol and ether extracted, made 0.3M in sodium acetate (pH 5.2) and precipitated with 3 volumes of ethanol. The DNA was redissolved in TE buffer at 68° C. and sedimented through a 10-40 percent linear sucrose gradient (51) in a Beckman SW 27 rotor at 27,000 rpm for 22 hours at 20° C. Fractions (0.5 ml) were analyzed on a 0.5 percent gel using Eco R1-digested Charon 4A (51a) DNA as a molecular weight standard. Those fractions containing 15-20 kilobase DNA fragments were combined, precipitated with ethanol and redissolved in TE buffer.

C. Construction of the Bovine Genomic DNA Library

The 15-20 kb bovine DNA nonlimit digest was cloned into a lambda Charon 30 A vector (52) having G-A-T-C sticky ends generated by removal of the two internal Bam HI fragments of the phage. Charon 30 A was grown in E. coli strain DP 50 SupF (ATTC No. 39061, deposited Mar. 5, 1982) in NZYDT broth, concentrated by polyethylene glycol precipitation and purified by CsCl density gradient centrifugation (53). Phage DNA was prepared by extracting the purified phage twice with phenol, once with phenol and ether, and concentrating the DNA by ethanol precipitation.

For preparation of the end fragments of Charon 30 A, 50 micrograms of phage DNA was annealed for 2 hours at 42° C. in 0.25 ml of 50 mM Tris-HCl (pH 8), 10M NaCl, digested to completion with Bam HI, phenol and ether extracted, and sedimented through a 10 to 40 percent sucrose gradient as described above. Fractions containing the 32 kb annealed arms of the phage were combined and ethanol precipitated.

The purified Charon 30 A arms (6 micrograms) were reannealed at 42° C. for 2 hours, combined with 0.3 micrograms of 15-20 kb bovine DNA an 400 units of phage T4 polynucleotide ligase and incubated overnight at 12° C. in a 0.075 ml reaction containing 50 mM Tris-HCl (pH 7.5), 10 mM MgC12, 20 mM dithiothreitol and 50 micrograms/ml bovine serum albumin. The ligated DNA mixture was then packaged into mature lambda phage particles using an in vitro lambda packaging system (54).

The components of this system-sonic extract (SE), freeze-thaw lysate (FTL), protein A, and buffers A and M1-were prepared as described (54). Three microliter aliquots of the ligated DNA mixture were incubated with 15 microliters of Buffer A, 2 microliters of Buffer M1, 10 microliters of SE and 1 microliter of protein A for 45 minutes at 27° C. The FTL was thawed on ice for 45 minutes, combined with 0.1 volumes of Buffer M1, centrifuged at 35,000 rpm at 4° C. for 25 minutes, and 0.075 ml aliquots of the supernatant were added to the above reaction. After an additional 2 hours of incubation at 27° C., a small aliquot of the packaging reaction was titered on strain DP 50 SupF, supra. This procedure yielded a total of approximately 1.1×10⁶ independent bovine DNA recombinants. The remainder of the packaging mixture was amplified by a plate-lysate method (52) by plating out the recombinants on DP 50 SupF at a density of 10,000 plaque-forming units per 15 cm NZYDT agar plate.

D. Screening of the Phage Library for Bovine Interferon Genes

The strategy used to identify phage recombinants carrying bovine interferon genes consisted in detecting nucleotide homology with radioactive probes prepared from cloned human leukocyte (8,9), fibroblast (12) and immune (55) interferon genes. Hybridization conditions were established with Southern blots (56) of genomic animal DNA. Five micrograms each of high molecular weight DNA (prepared as described above) from human placenta, bovine pancreas and pig submaxillary gland were digested to completion with Eco RI, electrophoresed on a 0.5 percent agarose gel and transferred to nitrocellulose paper (56). A 32P-labelled DNA probe was prepared from a 570 base-pair Eco R1 fragment containing the protein coding region of the mature human leukocyte interferon A/D hybrid at the Bgl II restriction site (57) by standard procedures (58). Each nitrocellulose filter was rehybridized at 42° C. overnight in 5×SSC (56), 50 mM sodium phosphate (pH 6.5), 0.1 mg/ml sonicated salmon sperm DNA, 5× Denhardt's solution (59), 0.1 percent sodium dodecyl sulfate, 0.1 percent sodium pyrophosphate that contained either 10 percent, 20 percent, or 30 percent formamide, and then hybridized with 100×10⁶ counts per minute of the labelled probe in the same solution containing 10 percent sodium dextran sulfate (60). After an overnight incubation at 42° C., the filters were washed 4 times in 2×SSC, 0.1 percent SDS at room temperature, once in 2×SSC and then exposed to Kodak XR-5 x-ray film with Dupont Cronex intensifying screens overnight. As seen in FIG. 1, a number of hybridizing bands are most readily detected in the bovine and porcine DNA digests when 20 percent formamide is present in the hybridization. This result provides evidence for a multigene family of leukocyte interferon genes in cow and pig analogous to that previously demonstrated in humans (12,61). The same hybridization conditions were therefore employed to screen for interferon genes in the bovine DNA library.

500,000 recombinant phage were plated out on DP 50 SupF at a density of 10,000 pfu/15 cm plate, and duplicate nitrocellulose filter replicas were prepared for each plate by the method of Benton and Davis (62). The filters were hybridized with the human LeIF gene probe as described above. Ninety-six duplicate hybridizing plaques were obtained which gave strong signals upon repeated screening.

The bovine library was further screened for fibroblast and immune interferon genes. Probes were made from a 502 base-pair Xba I-Bgl III fragment containing the entire mature human fibroblast interferon gene (12), and a 318 base-pair Alu I fragment (containing amino acids 12-116) and 190 base-pair Mbo II fragment (containing amino acids 99-162) from the mature coding region of the human immune interferon gene (55). Hybridization of 1.2×10⁶ recombinant phage yielded a total of 26 bovine fibroblast and 10 bovine immune interferon clones.

E. Characterization of the Recombinant Phage

Phage DNA was prepared (as described above) from 12 recombinants which hybridized with the human leukocyte interferon probe. Each DNA was digested singly and in combination with Eco R1, Bam HI and Hind III, electrophoresed on a 0.5 percent agarose gel and the location of the hybridizing sequence mapped by the Southern method (56). A comparison of singly digested DNA from clones 10, 35, 78 and 83 is shown in FIG. 2. For each phage the sizes of restriction fragments observed as well as the corresponding hybridization pattern is distinct and nonoverlapping, suggesting that each of these four phage carry a different bovine interferon gene. In addition, digestion of clone 83 with each of the three enzymes yields in each case two discrete hybridizing bands, indicating that this recombinant may carry two closely linked interferon genes.

F. Subcloning of the Bovine Leukocyte Interferon Genes

Restriction fragments from three of the recombinant phage which hybridized with the human leukocyte gene probe were subclones into the multiple restriction enzyme cloning site of the pBR322 derivative, pUC9. The plasmid pUC9 was derived from pBR322 by first removing the 2,067 base-pair EcoRI-PvuII fragment containing the tetracycline resistance gene, then inserting a 425 base-pair HaeII fragment from the phage M13 derivative mP9 (62a) into the HaeII site of the resulting plasmid at position 2352 (relative to the pBR322 notation). The HaeII fragment from mp9 contains the N-terminal coding region of the E. coli lacZ gene in which a multi-restriction enzyme cloning site of the sequence, CCA AGC TTG GCT GCA GGT CGA CGG ATC CCC GGG, has been inserted between the 4th and 5th amino acid residues of β-galactosidase. Insertion of a foreign DNA fragment into these cloning sites disrupts the continuity between the lac promoter and lacZ gene, thus altering the phenotype of a JM83 transformed with the plasmid from lac⁺ to lac⁻.

The fragments referred to above were: (a) a 1.9 kb Bam HI fragment and 3.7 kb EcoRI fragment from clone 83 (which corresponds to nonoverlapping segments of the same recombinant), (b) a 3.5 kb BamHI-EcoRI fragment from clone 35, and (c) a 3.2 kb EcoRI fragment from clone 67. In each case, 0.1 micrograms of the appropriately digested vector was ligated with a tenfold molar excess of the purified fragment, transformed E. coli strain JM83 (ATCC No. 39062, deposited Mar. 5, 1982), plated out onto M9 (63) plates containing 0.04 mg/ml 5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indolyl-β-D-galactoside and 0.2 mg/ml ampicillin. White colonies, which presumably carry a DNA insert at a restriction site interrupting the coding region of the lacZ gene on pUC9, were picked into 5 ml of LB broth plus 0.02 mg/ml ampicillin, grown for several hours at 37° C., and screened for the inserted fragment by a plasmid DNA minipreparation procedure (64.)

G. DNA Sequence of a Bovine Leukocyte Interferon Gene on Clone 83

The DNA sequence extending from the Bam HI site of p83BamHI1.9kb (the 1.9 kb fragment subclone of clone 83) was determined by the Maxam-Gilbert chemical procedure (65), and is presented in FIG. 3. The longest open reading frame encodes a polypeptide of 189 amino acids with significant homology to the human leukocyte interferons (FIG. 4). By analogy with the human proteins, the bovine leukocyte interferon consists of a hydrophobic 23 amino acid signal peptide which precedes a 166 amino acid mature protein by an identical sequence, ser-leu-gly-cys. Four cysteine residues at positions 1, 29, 99 and 139 are exactly conserved between species. A pairwise homology comparison between the bovine and human interferons is shown in Table 1. As may be expected, the bovine protein is significantly less homologous--(approximately 60 percent) to each of the human proteins than the latter are to one another (greater than 80 percent).

The DNA sequence and deduced amino acid sequence for three additional bovine leukocyte interferon genes occurring on the plasmid subclones p67EcoRI 3.2 kb, p35EcoRI-BamHI 3.5 kb and p83EcoRI 3.7 kb are shown in FIGS. 3B, 3C and 3D, respectively.

As summarized in Table 1, whereas the BoIFN-α2 and 3 genes encode peptides with only minor apparent differences to BoIFN-α1, the BoIFN-α4 protein is as distinct from the other bovine peptides as are any two bovine and human leukocyte interferons.

To ascertain whether the α4 gene derives from as broad a class of cellular proteins as the other BoIFN-αs, genomic bovine DNA was digested with several restriction endonucleases and hybridized with radioactive DNA fragments representing the protein coding regions of the α1 (612 bp AvaII fragment, FIG. 6) and α4 (EcoRI-XmnI fragment of pBoIFN-α4trp15) genes, under conditions of high stringency (50 percent formamide) that do not allow cross hybridization of the two genes. As seen in FIG. 6, each gene preferentially hybridizes to a distinct set of bovine DNA fragments. These results together clearly demonstrate the existence of two different families of bovine leukocyte IFN peptides, of which the α1 and α4 proteins may be thought of as representative members.

                                      TABLE 1                                      __________________________________________________________________________     Pairwise comparisons of differences                                            in coding sequences of bovine and human IFN-αs                                  α1                                                                           α2                                                                          α3                                                                          α4                                                                          αA                                                                          αB                                                                          αC                                                                           αD                                                                          αF                                                                           αH                                                                          αI                                                                          αJ                                                                          αK                         __________________________________________________________________________     BoIFN-α1                                                                            94 92 54 61 62 63  64 61  64 63 61 65                               BoIFN-α2                                                                        96     91 53 61 61 64  63 62  63 63 64 64                               BoIFN-α3                                                                        100 96    45                                                            BoIFN-α4                                                                        52  48 52    54 54 58  55 56  58 56 54 54                               HuIFN-αA                                                                        56  52    39    81 81  83 82  83 81 80 86                               HuIFN-αB                                                                        43  39    48 70    81  77 81  83 80 79 81                               HuIFN-αC                                                                        61  57    52 70 65     81 89  86 94 92 83                               HuIFN-αD                                                                        52  48    48 74 61 65     83  81 80 78 84                               HuIFN-αF                                                                        61  57    52 70 65 100 65     83 89 86 83                               HuIFN-αH                                                                        56  52    52 74 74 74  83 74     84 84 84                               HuIFN-αI                                                                        61  57    52 70 65 100 65 100 74    91 81                               HuIFN-αJ                                                                        56  52    48 61 57 91  70 91  65 91    80                               HuIFN-αK                                                                        52  48    48 83 70 74  91 74  91 74 65                                  __________________________________________________________________________      Numbers represent percentage homology                                          Lowerleft half represents 23 acid presequence                                  Upperright half represents 166 acid mature protein                             A,B,C, etc. are human leukocyte interferons A,B,C, etc.                  

H. Direct Expression of Mature BoIFN-αI in E. coli

The construction of the direct expression plasmid is sunmarized in FIG. 5. The plasmid subclone p83BamHI1.9kb was digested to completion with Ava II, and the 612 base-pair fragment containing the bovine leukocyte interferon gene isolated by electrophoresis on a 6 percent polyacrylamide gel and electroeluted. Approximately 1.5 micrograms of this fragment was digested with Fnu4H, phenol and ether extracted, and ethanol precipitated. The resulting Fnu4H sticky ends were extended to blunt ends with 6 units of DNA polymerase 1 (Klenow fragment) at 12° C. for 30 minutes in 20 microliters containing 20 mM Tris-HCl (pH 7.5), 10 mM MgCl₂, 4 mM dithiothreitol and 0.1 mM each dATP, dGTP, dCTP and dTTP. After extraction with phenol and ether, the DNA was digested with Pst I and electrophoresed on a 6 percent gel. The resulting 92 base-pair blunt end-Pst I fragment which extends from the first nucleotide of the coding region for the mature bovine leukocyte interferon was electroeluted from the gel.

The remainder of the mature coding region was isolated as follows. Three micrograms of the Bam HI insert of p83BamHI1.9kb was partially digested with 14 units of Pst I for 10 minutes at 37° C. in a 45 microliter reaction containing 10 mM Tris-HCl (pH 7.5), 10 mM MgCl₂, 2 mM dithiothreitol, and extracted with phenol and ether. The desired 1440 base-pair partial Pst I-Bam HI fragment extending from nucleotide 93 of the mature coding region was isolated from a 6 percent polyacrylamide gel.

The plasmid pdeltaRIsrc is a derivative of the plasmid pSRCex16 (66) in which the Eco RI sites proximal to the trp promoter and distal to the src gene have been removed by repair with DNA polymerase 1 (67), and the self-complementary oligodeoxynucleotide AATTATGAATTCAT (synthesized by the phosphotriester method (68)) was inserted into the remaining Eco RI site immediately adjacent to the Xba I site. 20 micrograms of pdeltaRIsrc was digested to completion with Eco RI, phenol and ether extracted, and ethanol precipitated. The plasmid was then digested with 100 units of nuclease S1 at 16° C. for 30 minutes in 25 mM sodium acetate (pH 4.6), 1 mM ZnC1₂ and 0.3M NaCl to create a blunt end with the sequence ATG. After phenol and ether extraction and ethanol precipitation, the DNA was digested with Bam HI, electrophoresed on a 6 percent polyacrylamide gel, and the large (4300 bp) vector fragment recovered by electroelution.

The expression plasmid was assembled by ligating together 0.2 micrograms of vector, 0.02 micrograms of the 92 bp blunt-Pst I fragment and 0.25 micrograms of the 1400 bp partial Pst I--Bam HI fragment with 400 units of T4 DNA ligase overnight at 12° C., and used to transform E. coli strain 294 (ATCC No. 31446) to ampicillin resistance. Plasmid DNA was prepared from 96 of the colonies and digested wit Xba 1 and Pst I. Nineteen of these plasmids contained the desired 103 base-pair XbaI-PstI and 1050 base-pair Pst 1 fragments. DNA sequence analysis verified that several of these plasmids had an ATG initiation codon correctly placed at the start of the bovine interferon coding region. One of these plasmids, pBoIFN-α1trp55 was chosen for further study.

I. Direct Expression of a Second Class of Mature Bovine Leukocyte Interferon (α-4) in E. coli

An ATG initiation codon was placed in front of the mature coding region by the enzymatic extension of a synthetic DNA primer, CATGTGTGACTTGTCT. The heptadecamer was phosphorylated with T4 polynucleotide kinase and γ-32P ATP as previously described (12). 250 pmoles of the primer was combined with approximately 1 microgram of a 319 bp HincII fragment containing amino acid residues S20 to 102 in 30 microliters of H₂ O, boiled for 5 min, and extended with 25 units of E. coli DNA polymerase I Klenow fragment at 37° C. for 3 hours. The product of this reaction was digested with HgiAI and the resulting 181 bp blunt-HgiAI fragment was isolated from a 6 percent polyacrylamide gel.

The entire gene for the mature peptide was assembled behind the trp promoter by enzymatically ligating the above fragment with a 508 bp HgiA-PstI fragment containing the carboxy-terminal portion of the peptide and the HuIFN-γ expression plasmid, pIFN-γtrp48-13 (55), which had been digested with EcoRI, extended to flush ends with Klenow DNA polymerase, digested with PstI and finally isolated on a 6 percent polyacrylamide gel. Upon transformation of resulting mixture into E. coli 294, several clones were identified which had restored the EcoRI recognition site between the trp promoter-ribosome binding site region of the parent expression vector and the complete coding region of the mature bovine IFN (pBoIFN-α4trp15).

J. Subcloning of the Bovine Fibroblast Interferon Genes

Six of the phage recombinants which hybridized with the human IFN-β DNA probe were purified and their DNA isolated as described above for further analysis. Restriction mapping combined with Southern hybridization analysis indicated that the six isolates comprised three distinct regions of the bovine genome, thus implying a multigene BoIFN-β family. These results are summarized by the restriction maps shown in FIG. 7. To obtain a more detailed restriction map and nucleotide sequence for each distinct class of recombinant, hybridizing fragments were subcloned into plasmid vectors. Specifically, the 5kb BglII fragment of phage λβ1 and the 5 kb BamHI fragment of phage λβ2 were individually cloned into pBR322 at the BamHI site, the overlapping 4.5 kb EcoRI-XhoI and 1.4 kb PstI-HpaI fragment of phage λβ3 were inserted into pUC9 (deleted from the EcoRI-SalI sites) and pLeIF87 (10) (deleted from HpaI-PstI), respectively.

K. DNA Sequences of Three Distinct Bovine Fibroblast IFN Genes

FIG. 8 shows restriction maps for each of the three types of bovine IFN-β genes that were subcloned. These are easily distinguished by the presence of cleavage sites unique to each. The peptide coding regions as well as sequences immediately upstream and downstream for each gene was determined by the Maxam-Gilbert chemical procedure and are shown in FIGS. 9a, 9b and 9c. Nucleotide homology with the sequence determined for the human fibroblast interferon gene (12) predicts the correct reading frame and entire amino acid sequence for each bovine gene product, which includes a hydrophobic signal peptide of 21 amino acids followed by a mature protein of 185 residues. The bovine proteins are quite distinct from one another (Table 2, FIG. 10), but show an even greater difference (approximately 60 percent) with the human peptide.

The multigene nature of bovine fibroblast interferon was further demonstrated by rehybridizing the Southern blot shown in FIG. 11, with a radioactive probe prepared from a 415 bp EcoRI-PvuI fragment derived from pBoIFN-β1trp (described below). As seen in FIG. 11, this experiment provides evidence for the existence of additional, homologous IFN-β genes. The lesser hybridizing bands may in fact represent more distantly related genes, that would in turn encode more distinct β-IFNs.

                  TABLE 2                                                          ______________________________________                                         Pairwise Comparisons of Homology in Coding Sequences of Bovine                 IFN-βs and the Human IFN-β.                                          β1     β2     β3  Huβ                                      ______________________________________                                         β1         138 (83)    138 (83)                                                                              84 (51)                                     β2 20 (95)             146 (88)                                                                              92 (55)                                     β3 20 (95)  19 (90)           87 (52)                                     Huβ                                                                               16 (76)  17 (81)     16 (76)                                           ______________________________________                                          The number of identical amino acids in each pair of coding sequences are       shown. The 21 amino acid signal peptide are compared in the lower left         part and the 166 amino acid mature IFNβs are compared in the upper        right part of the table. The total number of identical amino acids in eac      pair is listed first, followed by the percentage homology.               

L. Direct Expression of Three Bovine IFN-βs in E. coli

As the three bovine IFN-β genes share many common DNA sequences and restriction sites (see FIG. 8), a general scheme is feasible for the expression of all three genes. Since the DNA sequence coding for the first five amino acids, which contains two AluI sites, was identical in each case, two complementary synthetic oligonucleotides were designed which incorporate an ATG n, restore the codons for the first 4 amino acids of mature bovine IFN-β, and create an EcoRI sticky for insertion after a trp promoter sequence. Construction of the expression plasmids is schematized in FIG. 12. Ligation of the synthetic oligomers to the 85 bp AluI-XhoI fragment derived from of the BoIFN-β subclone plasmids, followed by digestion with EcoRI and XhoI generates a 104 bp fragment flanked by EcoRI and XhoI sticky ends. The entire coding was then assembled into the trp expression vector by ligating the 104 bp fragment together with the approximately 700 bp XhoI-Pst fragment coding for the remainder of each BoIFN-β protein and the plasmid pIFN-γtr48-13 (55) from which the internal EcoRI-PstI fragment had been removed. The resulting plasmids, pBoIFN-β1trp, pBoIFN-β2trp and pBoIFN-β3trp all place the proper transcription and translation of the IFN-β genes under the control of the E. coli trp operon.

M. Characterization and Subcloning of Bovine Immune Interferon (BoIFN-γ) Gene

The ten phage recombinants that hybridized with the human IFN-γ probe were purified and DNA was prepared as described above. All ten DNA samples give specific hybridizing bands by Southern blot analysis. Clones λγ4 and λγ7 were chosen for further analysis, as they have distinct hybridizing band patterns. Restriction mapping of these two clones shows their DNA sequences overlap with each other. The overlapping region contains the restriction sites XbaI, EcoRV, and NcoI. DNA sequence analysis of these two clones shows an overall similar gene structure to the human immune interferon gene (70) and that λγ7 contains the sequence coding for the 4th exon and λγ4 contains sequences coding for the first three exons of bovine IFN-γ gene based on DNA sequence homology with the human IFN-γ gene. The amino acid sequence deduced for BoIFN-γ is compared with that of HuIFN-γ (55) and Murine IFN-γ, in FIG. 13.

To assemble the entire bovine IFN-γ gene on a continuous segment of DNA, the 3000 bp BamHI-NcoI fragment spanning the first three exons of bovine IFN-γ gene derived from λγ4 and the 2500 bp NcoI-Hind III fragment spanning the last exon derived from λγ7 were isolated. These two DNA fragments were then cloned into a BamHI-Hind III vector derived from pBR322 via a three part ligation.

N. Expression of Bovine IFN-γ Gene in Mammalian System

For purposes of obtaining an intron-less version of BoIFN-γ in order that this gene is expressible in a prokaryotic system such as E. coli, the gene was tailored for high level expression in an animal cell expression system to obtain significant quantities of specific mRNA. The 5500 bp BamHI-HindIII fragment spanning the entire bovine IFN-γ gene was inserted into a SV40 vector for expression in COS cells (44). Specifically, the BamHI-HindIII bovine IFN-γ gene fragment was cloned into a 2800 bp SV40 plasmid vector pDLΔR1 ((derived from the HBV antigen expression plasmid pHBs348-L by enzymatically deleting the EcoRI site upstream from the SV40 origin of replication selective to the direction of late transcription. Expression plasmid pHBs348-L was constructed by cloning the 1986 base-pair fragment resulting from EcoRI and BglII digestion of HBV (71) (which spans the gene encoding HBsAg) into the plasmid pML (72) at the EcoRI and BamHI sites. (pML is a derivative of pBR322 which has a deletion eliminating sequences which are inhibitory to plasmid replication in monkey cells (72)). The resulting plasmid (pRI-Bg1) was then linearized with EcoRI, and the 348 base-pair fragment representing the SV40 origin region was introduced into the EcoRI site of pRI-Bg1. The origin fragment can insert in either orientation. Since this fragment encodes both the early and late SV40 promoters in addition to the origin of replication, HBV genes could be expressed under the control of either promoter depending on this orientation (pHBs348-L representing HBs expressed under control of the late promoter)) between the BamHI and the Sal I site via a three part ligation in the presence of a 600 bp HindIII-SalI converter fragment derived from pBR322. Transfection of the resultant plasmid into COS cells leads to the efficient expression of bovine IFN-γ under the control of SV40 late promotor.

Poly A plus mRNA was prepared from transfected COS cells and used in turn to prepare cDNA by standard procedures (55). cDNA clones hybridizing with bovine IFN-γ gene probe were isolated. The cDNA clone with the longest Pst 1 insert was chosen for further analysis. DNA sequence analysis of this cDNA clone shows all the intron sequences predicted from the bovine IFN-γ genomic clone are correctly removed.

The cDNA was tailored for expression in E. coli by the primer repair method described above.

O. Rabbit and Porcine IFN-γ cDNA Isolation

The bovine IFN-γ cDNA was used as a hybridization probe to isolate the rabbit and porcine IFN-γ complementary DNA sequence. Rabbit and porcine RNA were isolated Berger et al., Biochemistry 18, 5143 (1979)! from respective cultures of rabbit and porcine spleen cells induced with phytohemagglutinins (10 μg/ml) and phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (10 μg/ml) overnight. Individual samples of rabbit and porcine RNA were then run through oligo(dT)-cellulose to enrich for mRNA. Double stranded cDNA libraries from 2 μg samples of rabbit and porcine mRNA were used to prepare cDNA libraries in bacteriophage vector λgt10 (Huynh et al., Practical Approaches in Biochemistry, Grover ed., IRL, Oxford, England, 1985). 140 hybridizing clones (approx. 140) were obtained upon screening 1.5×10⁵ phage recombinants from the rabbit cDNA library, whereas only 16 positive hybridizing clones were obtained upon screening 1.6×10⁶ phage recombinants from the porcine cDNA library. DNA restriction mapping shows most of these λgt10 recombinant phages contain an EcoRI insert ranging in size from 1 kb to 1.5 kb. Two of the phages (λRγ7 and λRγ13) from the rabbit cDNA library and two (λPγ14 and λPγ16) from the porcine cDNA library were subcloned into M13mp19 Norrander et al., Gene 26, 101 (1983)! and sequences by the dideoxy-chain method (62a).

The DNA nucleotide sequences of the longest rabbit IFN-γ cDNA clone (λRγ7) and of the porcine IFN-γ clone (λPγ14) and their predicted amino acid sequence based on DNA sequence homology with the human IFN-γ cDNA are shown on FIGS. 14e and 14c respectively. There is no nucleotide difference between the two individual rabbit IFN-γ cDNA clones sequenced except in the length of poly-As at the 3'-end. Similarly, the two individual porcine IFN-γ cDNA clones have identical DNA sequences except in the lengths of the 5'- and 3'-non-coding regions.

P. Amino Acid Sequence of IFN-γ

FIG. 15 presents the protein sequence homology of IFN-γ from several mammalian species. The signal sequences for human, bovine, porcine, and rabbit IFN-γ are 23 amino acids, while the mouse and rat signal sequences contain 22 amino acids due to a deletion at the 19th codon. The designation of the signal sequences of these animal IFN-γ's was based on structural homology with natural human IFN-γ. This stretch of amino acids contains features common to secretory protein signal sequences with a hydrophobic core of 10 amino acids extending from amino acids -7 to -16. The signal peptidase recognition sequence is expected to be (Cys/Ser)-Tyr-(Cys-Gly) corresponding to -21 to -23, with the cleavage site located after -23.

The polypeptide chains for mature human, bovine, and porcine IFN-γ have an identical length of 143 amino acids, while mature rabbit IFN-γ has 144 amino acids with an extra amino acid at the carboxy-terminal end. The mouse and rat IFN-γ have only 133 and 134 amino acids, respectively. Amino acid sequence comparisons show that the last 9 amino acid residues found in human, bovine and porcine IFN-γ have been deleted in mouse and rat IFN-γ. Additionally, amino acid residue 26 has been deleted in mouse IFN-γ. Apart from mouse and rat IFN-γ with a cysteine at the C-terminal end, which may not be present in vivo, none of the other mature IFN-γs described here contain any cysteines. Disulfide linkage is therefore not required to maintain the overall structure of mature IFN-γ, although full length recombinant murine IFN-γ readily builds an intra dimer disulfide bridge (which does not change the specific activity). Rabbit IFN-γ contains three potential N-glycosylation sequences Asn-X-(Thr/Ser) Struck et al., J Biol Chem 253, 5786 (1978)!, whereas the other five IFN-γs have only two in their mature proteins. Mouse IFN-γ is the only IFN-γ with an additional glycosylation site within its signal peptide. The position of these sites is apparently not conserved among the various IFN-γs.

The overall amino acid sequence homology among human, bovine, porcine and rabbit IFN-γ is above 60 percent with respect to one another, whereas the homology between either mouse or rat IFN-γ and any of the other four IFN-γs presented here is less than 40 percent. The homology between mouse and rat IFN-γ exceeds 85 percent.

Q. Synthesis of Bovine, Porcine, and Rabbit IFN-γ in E. coli

The procedure used to express the cDNA inserts of bovine porcine and rabbit IFN-γ directly in E. coli was as follows: Using synthetic oligonucleotides, an ATG codon for the initiator methionine was introduced in front of the Gln codon for the presumed amino-terminus of mature bovine, porcine and rabbit IFN-γ. This ATG initiation codon was in turn preceded by XbaI sticky ends. Portable restriction fragments containing the entire mature coding sequence for IFN-γ were generated by cleavage with XbaI and a second restriction enzyme with a unique cleavage site located at the 3'-non-coding region of each IFN-γ cDNA clone; namely, DraI for bovine IFN-γ cDNA, SspI for porcine IFN-γ cDNA, and NsiI for rabbit IFN-γ cDNA. The resulting restriction fragments were inserted between the XbaI and Pst site of the trp expression plasmid pIFN-β3 (see supra.), of which the XbaI site is located immediately downstream of the trp leader ribosome binding site.

High level expression of bovine, porcine, and rabbit IFN-γ were obtained due to transcription from the strong trp promoter and to the placement of the ribosome binding sequence of the trp leader at an optimal distance from the ATG initiator codon of the inserted coding sequence for efficient translation. Analysis of bacterial extracts harboring the bovine, porcine, and rabbit IFN-γ expression plasmids by SDS-gel electrophoresis shows the presence of IFN-γ as a major band on the protein gel with an apparent molecular weight of 17 to 18k dalton.

These IFN-γ were purified to homogeneity from E. coli cell extracts by a combination of adsorption, ion-exchange and size exclusion chromatography. Purified proteins were routinely stored at 4° C. at concentrations ranging from 0.5-5.0 mg/ml in 20 mM Tris-HCl, 0.5M NaCl pH 8.0 after sterile filtration. Protein concentrations were determined using a Bradford-type dye binding assay employing bovine serum albumin as a standard. These IFN-γ are all judged to have a purity of >98 percent based on SDS PAGE with both Coomassie and silver stain. Endotoxin levels in all these preparations are below 0.1 ng/mg (<1 EU/mg). Size exclusion chromatography on a Pharmacia Superose 12 column under non-denaturing conditions suggests that rBoIFN-γ, rPoIFN-γ, and rRbIFN-γ exist as dimers in solution with apparent molecular weights of 25.8K, 31.6K, and 21.0K, respectively. In 4M guanidine hydrochloride, however, they chromatograph as monomers. These values fit well with the apparent molecular weights found by SDS PAGE. All three species still carry the initiator methionine (from direct expression) on their N-terminus.

R. Estimation of the Number of IFN-γ in the Bovine, Porcine, and Rabbit Genomes

The number of IFN-γ genes in the various mammalian genomes was estimated by Southern blot analysis. Bovine, porcine, and rabbit chromosomal DNA were digested with several restriction enzymes, fractionated by agarose gel electrophoresis, and transferred to nitrocellulose. Hybridization was performed under either stringent or non-stringent conditions with a radiolabeled 600 bp AvaII fragment derived from the bovine IFN-γ cDNA clone. The presence of only one or two hybridizing bands upon digestion with various restriction enzymes indicates the existence of just one copy of IFN-γ gene per haploid genome. Bovine, porcine, rabbit, human and mouse IFN-γ are therefore all single copy genes.

S. Construction of Bacterial Plasmid for the Expression of Porcine IFN-α1

Two synthetic nucleotides ##STR1## were designed that incorporate an ATG translation initiation codon, restore the codons for the first four amino acids of mature porcine IFN-α1 and create an EcoRI and Dde I sticky ends. Ligation of these oligomers to the 150 bp partial Dde-I-NcoI fragment and the 550 bp NcoI-AhaIII fragment derived from the porcine IFN-α1 genomic clone generates a 720 bp synthetic-natural gene that codes for mature porcine IFN-α1 bounded by EcoRI and AhaIII sites. Insertion of this porcine IFN-α1 gene flanked by EcoRI and AhaIII ends into the plasmid pIFN-β3 (Leung et al., Bio/Technology 2, 458 (1984)) between the EcoRI and PstI sites yields the expression plasmid pTrpPoA1 in which the porcine α1 gene is transcribed under the control of the E. coli trp operon.

T. Preparation of Bacterial Extracts

overnight cultures grown in LB broth containing either 0.02 mg/ml of ampicillin or 0.005 mg/ml tetracycline were inoculated at a 1:100 dilution into 50 ml of M9 medium (63) containing 0.2 percent glucose, 0.5 percent casamino acids and the appropriate drug, and grown at 37° C. with shaking to an A550=1.0. Ten ml samples were harvested by centrifugation and immediately quick-frozen in a dry ice-ethanol bath. The frozen pellets were resuspended in 1 ml of 7M guanidine, incubated on ice for 5 minutes, and diluted into PBS for assay. Alternatively, the frozen pellets were lysed by the addition of 0.2 ml of 20 percent sucrose, 100 mM Tris-HCl (pH 8.0), 20 mM EDTA and 5 mg/ml lysozyme. After 20 minutes on ice, 0.8 ml of 0.3 percent Triton X-100, 0.15M Tris-HCl (pH 8.0), 0.2M EDTA and 0.1 mM PMSF was added. The lysate was cleared by centrifugation at 19,000 rpm for 15 minutes and the supernatant assayed after dilution into PBS.

U. Interferon Assays

Bovine interferon activity was assayed by a cytopathic effect (CPE) inhibition assay performed in 96 well microtiter plates as follows:

1. Add to each well of a 96 well microliter plate (8 rows×12 columns) 100 μl of a suspension of cells in media containing 10 percent fetal calf serum. Cell concentration is adjusted to give confluent monolayer the next day.

2. Rock plates gently on a rocker platform for 10 minutes to evenly distribute cells.

Next Day

3. Add to each well in the first column 80 μl of additional media.

4. Add to a well in the first column, 20 μl of a sample to be assayed for interferon activity.

5. Mix the sample and medium in the well by withdrawing and ejecting 100 μl of the contents of the well several times with a 100 μl pipette.

6. Transfer 100 μl of the contents of a well in the first column horizontally to a well in second column.

7. Mix as in step 3.

8. Continue to transfer 100 μl of the contents of a well from column to subsequent column until a total of 11 transfers are performed.

9. Remove and discard 100 μl of the contents of the well in the 12th column. This procedure produces a serial set of two-fold dilutions.

10. Each assay plate includes appropriate NIH standards.

11. Incubate plates in a CO₂ incubation, 37° C. for 24 hours.

12. Each assay plate contains wells which receive 100 μl of cell suspension and 100 μl of medium to serve as cell growth controls and wells which receive 100 μl cell suspension, 100 μl of medium and 50 μl of virus suspension to serve as virus-induced cytopathogenic controls.

13. Challenge all wells except cell controls with 50 μl of a virus suspension. Multiplicity of infection used is that amount of virus which causes 100 percent cytopathic effect on the particular cell line within 24 hours.

14. Reincubate plates for 24 hours at 37° C. in CO₂ incubation.

15. Remove fluid from plates and stain cells with 0.5 percent crystal violet. Allow cells to stain for 2-5 minutes.

16. Rinse plate well in tap water and allow to dry.

17. Titer of Interferon on sample is the reciprocal of the dilution where 50 percent viable cells remain.

18. The activity of all samples are normalized by the Reference Units Conversion Factor which is calculated from:

Actual Titer of NIH Standard Reference Units

Observed Titer in Assay=Conversion Factor. (See 69). Extracts prepared from E. coli strain 294 (ATCC No. 31446) transformed with pBoIFN-α1trp55 showed significant activity on a bovine kidney cell line (MDBK) challenged with VS virus (Indiana strain), but not on monkey kidney (VERO), human cervical carcinoma (HeLa), rabbit kidney (Rk-13) or mouse (L929) cell lines challenged in a similar fashion. Control extracts prepared from strain 294 transformed with pBR322 did not exhibit activity on MDBK cells. Table 3 summarizes the in vitro antiviral activity BoIFN-α1 on various challenged animal and human cell lines. BoIFN-α1 is readily distinguished from the human leukocyte IFN's by an apparent lack of antiviral activity on human cells relative to its activity on bovine cells employing VS virus as the challenge. Table 4 shows the level of interferon activity obtained in extracts prepared from E. coli W3110 which has been transformed with the expression plasmids pBoIFN-α4trp15, pBoIFN-β1trp, pBoIFN-β2trp and pBoIFN-β3trp. Particularly significant is the observation that the bovine fibroblast interferons are approximately 30-fold more active on a bovine kidney cell line than on a human amnion cell line, whereas the reciprocal relationship is found for human fibroblast IFN (12).

                  TABLE 3                                                          ______________________________________                                                            Titer                                                                          (units/ml)                                                  Cell Line IFN Preparation                                                                               VSV      EMCV                                         ______________________________________                                         MDBK      LeIF A Standard                                                                               640      NA                                                     Bovine leukocyte IFN                                                                          300,000  NA                                                     Control Extract                                                                               <40      NA                                           HeLa      LeIF A Standard                                                                               650      1,500                                                  Bovine leukocyte IFN                                                                          <40      <23                                                    Control Extract                                                                               <40      <23                                          L-929     Mouse IFN Standard                                                                            640      1,000                                                  Bovine leukocyte IFN                                                                          <20      <31                                                    Control Extract                                                                               <20      <31                                          RK-13     Rabbit IFN Standard                                                                           1,000    NA                                                     Bovine leukocyte IFN                                                                          <60      NA                                                     Control Extract                                                                               <60      NA                                           VERO      LeIF A Standard         1,500                                                  Bovine leukocyte IFN    <12                                                    Control Extract         <12                                          ______________________________________                                          MDBK = bovine kidney cells                                                     VERO = African Green monkey kidney cells                                       HeLa = human cervical carcinoma cells                                          RK12 = rabbit kidney cells                                                     NA = not application as virus does not replicate well in respective cell.

                  TABLE 4                                                          ______________________________________                                         Interferon Activity in Extracts of E. coli                                                 IFN-β activity                                                                         IFN-β activity                                   E. coli 294 (units/liter culture)                                                                       (units/liter culture)                                 transformed by:                                                                            MDBK-VSV     WISH-VSV                                              ______________________________________                                         pIFN-α1                                                                              1.0 × 10.sup.8                                                                        N.D.                                                  pIFN-β1                                                                               2.2 × 10.sup.8                                                                        6.5 × 10.sup.6                                  pIFN-β2                                                                               1.1 × 10.sup.8                                                                        3.5 × 10.sup.6                                  pIFN-β3                                                                               6.0 × 10.sup.8                                                                        2.0 × 10.sup.7                                  ______________________________________                                          Bacterial extracts were prepared and assayed for interferon activity usin      the bovine kidney MDBK cell line and the human amnion WISH cell line and       VSV as challenge according to a published procedure (Weck et al., 1981)  

Similarly, bioassay results demonstrated that activity was present as follows:

                  TABLE 5                                                          ______________________________________                                         Interferon   Cell Line  Activity in E. coli Extant                             ______________________________________                                         porcine IFN-α1                                                                        MDBK        2.5 × 10.sup.10 U/L                                                     8.33 × 10.sup.5 U/ml/OD                          porcine IFN-γ                                                                         PK-15       1.2 × 10.sup.10 U/L                                                       3 × 10.sup.5 U/ml/OD                           rabbit IFN-γ                                                                          RK-13      1.58 × 10.sup.8 U/L                                                        8 × 10.sup.4 U/ml/OD                           ______________________________________                                    

Administrable Compositions

The compounds of the present invention can be formulated according to known methods to prepare useful compositions, whereby the non-human animal interferon products hereof are combined in admixture with (an) acceptable carrier vehicle(s). Suitable vehicles and their formulation have been described. Such compositions will contain an effective amount of the interferon protein hereof together with a suitable amount of vehicle in order to prepare acceptable compositions suitable for effective administration, via known routes, e.g., parenteral, to the host.

It will be understood that the non-human animal interferons embraced herein exist with natural allelic variations. These variations may be demonstrated by (an) amino acid difference(s) in the overall sequence or by deletions, substitutions, insertions, inversions or additions of (an) amino acid(s) in said sequence. All such allelic variations are included within the scope of this invention. In addition, so long as the essential biological activity of a given non-human animal interferon hereof is manifest in kind, other variations or derivations of the natural sequences are included herein. These can be prepared by induced mutagenesis of the underlying DNA sequence, for example.

Notwithstanding that reference has been made to particular preferred embodiments, it will be further understood that the present invention is not to be construed as limited to such, rather to the lawful scope of the appended claims.

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We claim:
 1. An essentially purified and isolated nucleic acid molecule comprising a nucleotide sequence selected from the group consisting of:the mature bovine interferon alpha-1 coding sequence of FIGS. 3A-1-3A-2; the mature bovine interferon alpha-2 coding sequence of FIGS. 3B-1-3B-2; the mature bovine interferon alpha-3 coding sequence of FIGS. 3C-1-3C-2; the mature bovine interferon alpha-4 coding sequence of FIGS. 3D-1-3D-2; the mature bovine interferon beta-1 coding sequence of FIGS. 9A-1-9A-2; the mature bovine interferon beta-2 coding sequence of FIGS. 9B-1-9B-2; the mature bovine interferon beta-3 coding sequence of FIGS. 9C-1-9C-2; the mature porcine interferon alpha-1 coding sequence of FIG. 14A; the mature porcine interferon beta-1 coding sequence of FIG. 14B; the mature porcine interferon gamma coding sequence of FIG. 14C; the mature feline interferon beta-1 coding sequence of FIG. 14D; and the mature laprine interferon gamma coding sequence of FIG. 14E.
 2. A nucleic acid molecule according to claim 1 comprising the complete interferon propeptide coding sequence, including the signal peptide-encoding sequence, as shown in the respective figure(s).
 3. A nucleic acid molecule according to claim 1 comprising the complete cDNA sequence shown in the respective figure(s).
 4. A replicable expression vehicle comprising the nucleic acid molecule of claim 1 and capable, in a transformant microorganism or cell culture, of expressing the nucleic acid sequence encoding the polypeptide.
 5. A microorganism or cell culture transfected with the replicable expression vehicle according to claim
 4. 6. An essentially purified and isolated nucleic acid molecule comprising a nucleic acid sequence encoding a polypeptide comprising the sequence of a non-human animal interferon having an amino acid sequence selected from the group consisting of:the mature bovine interferon alpha-1 amino acid sequence set forth in FIGS. 3A-1-3A-2; the mature bovine interferon alpha-2 amino acid sequence set forth in FIGS. 3B-1-3B-2; the mature bovine interferon alpha-3 amino acid sequence set forth in FIGS. 3C-1-3C-2; the mature bovine interferon alpha-4 amino acid sequence set forth in FIGS. 3D-1-3D-2; the mature bovine interferon beta-1 amino acid sequence set forth in FIGS. 9A-1-9A-2; the mature bovine interferon beta-2 amino acid sequence set forth in FIGS. 9B-1-9B-2; the mature bovine interferon beta-3 amino acid sequence set forth in FIGS. 9C-1-9C-2; the amino acid sequence of mature bovine interferon-gamma set forth in FIG. 13; the amino acid sequence of mature murine interferon-gamma set forth in FIG. 13; the mature porcine interferon alpha-1 amino acid sequence set forth in FIG. 14A; the mature porcine interferon beta-1 amino acid sequence set forth in FIG. 14B; the mature porcine interferon gamma amino acid sequence set forth in FIG. 14C; the mature feline interferon beta-1 amino acid sequence set forth in FIG. 14D; the mature laprine interferon-gamma amino acid sequence set forth in FIG. 14e; and the amino acid sequence of mature rat interferon-gamma set forth in FIG. 14E.
 7. The nucleic acid molecule according to claim 6, wherein the nucleic acid sequence additionally comprises a sequence encoding the amino acid methionine attached to the N-terminus of the interferon.
 8. The nucleic acid molecule according to claim 6, wherein the nucleic acid sequence additionally comprises a sequence encoding a cleaveable conjugate or signal protein attached to the N-terminus of the interferon.
 9. A nucleic acid molecule according to claim 6 comprising a sequence encoding the complete interferon propeptide sequence, including the signal peptide sequence, as shown in the respective figure(s).
 10. The nucleic acid molecule of claim 6 wherein the polypeptide comprises a bovine alpha interferon having an amino acid sequence selected from the group consisting of the amino acid sequence of amino acids 1 to 166 of FIGS. 3A-1-A-2, the amino acid sequence of amino acids 1 to 166 of FIGS. 3B-1-B-2, the amino acid sequence of amino acids 1 to 166 of FIGS. 3C-1-C-2, and the amino acid sequence of amino acids 1 to 172 of FIGS. 3D-1-D-2.
 11. The nucleic acid molecule of claim 6 wherein the polypeptide comprises a bovine beta interferon having an amino acid sequence selected from the group consisting of the amino acid sequence of amino acids 1 to 165 of FIGS. 9A-1-A-2, the amino acid sequence of amino acids 1 to 165 of FIGS. 9B-1-B-2, and the amino acid sequence of amino acids 1 to 165 of FIGS. 9C-1-C-2.
 12. The nucleic acid molecule of claim 6 wherein the polypeptide comprises the bovine gamma interferon amino acid sequence of FIG.
 13. 13. The nucleic acid molecule of claim 6 wherein the polypeptide comprises a porcine interferon having an amino acid sequence selected from the group consisting of the amino acid sequence of amino acids 1 to 166 of FIG. 14A, the amino acid sequence of amino acids 1 to 164 of FIG. 14B, and the amino acid sequence of amino acids 1 to 143 of FIG. 14C.
 14. The nucleic acid molecule according to claim 6, wherein the nucleic acid sequence is operably linked with a control sequence capable of effecting expression of the nucleic acid sequence encoding the polypeptide in a microorganism or cell culture transfected with the nucleic acid molecule.
 15. A replicable expression vehicle comprising the nucleic acid molecule of claim 14 and capable, in a transformant microorganism or cell culture, of expressing the nucleic acid sequence encoding the polypeptide.
 16. A process for producing a polypeptide comprising the amino acid sequence of a non-human animal interferon comprising causing a culture of a microorganism or cell culture, transformed with a replicable expression vehicle according to claim 14, to grow and effect production of the polypeptide and recovering the polypeptide.
 17. A process of producing an expression vehicle according to claim 15 comprising constructing a DNA molecule comprising a first DNA sequence coding for the polypeptide operably linked to a second DNA sequence capable of effecting expression of the first DNA sequence in a microorganism or cell culture transfected with the expression vehicle.
 18. A microorganism or cell culture transfected with the nucleic acid molecule according to claim
 14. 19. The microorganism according to claim 18 that is a transfected E. coli strain.
 20. The microorganism or cell culture according to claim 18 that is capable of producing the polypeptide in a form where the amino acid sequence of the non-human animal interferon is unaccompanied by the signal peptide or presequence peptide of the non-human animal interferon.
 21. A process which comprises expressing in the microorganism or cell culture according to claim 20 the nucleic acid sequence encoding the polypeptide in a form where the amino acid sequence of the non-human animal interferon is unaccompanied by the signal peptide or presequence peptide of the non-human animal interferon. 